I have in the past experienced moments of ‘flow’, intervals during which it feels like something big is working through me. For example, on occasion I teach a course called ‘The Power of Self-Esteem’, and another called ‘The Power Of Purpose’. They’re usually taught as six evening sessions to small groups of up to fifteen. They are experiential in nature – the students learn mainly from the experiences they have whilst following the course material. This can involve self-reflection, journal work, watching and listening to presentations, listening to the course ‘mentor’, and sharing their own story and experiences with the others in the course. During those times when I am speaking or interacting with a student it is important that I supress or set aside any agenda of my own devising – the course material works just fine as it is without any additions of my own, and trying to fit a student into some mould I have assumed is a fit for them is more often than not a mistake – it is vital to really listen to the students, to be 100% for them, to believe in them and know that they will often themselves have the answer they are seeking. When I achieve this, this level of detachment, where my own ego and will are set aside and I just open my mouth and let the words come out, it is then that I experience ‘flow’. Most often the words that I speak, whilst in ‘flow’, are somehow so apt and fitting, and seem to hit the mark with the students.

After such evenings I often feel excited and grateful and humble. I know that something remarkable has happened. It SEEMS that when I set aside my will and allowed it in, something far bigger than myself was able to work through me and touch in a profound way the life of another. It would be easy to say that it was ‘God’ or ‘the divine spirit of life’ or some other supernatural cause at work.

It feels like that. I feel tingling, like my chest and head are clear like mountain air and there is a kind of glow around me. And I am at peace – my purpose for the moment is fulfilled – I have been part of creating something special – a transformational experience for others.

And yet … perhaps a simpler explanation is that by quieting my conscious mind I was able to tap into a deeper, sub-conscious wisdom that exists within me. It’s the same same wisdom we access when we say we’re following a hunch, or a gut feeling, or an instinct.

Perhaps we all have this inner wisdom, it’s just that few have the skills with which to tap into it.